Join the beta testing process and get access to the new 2017.1 beta

Unity 5.6 concluded the Unity 5 cycle. We are now moving into the next generation of Unity, introducing 2017.1, and we invite you to help test the beta version.

Join our beta testing process

It’s simple to get started and be part of the beta process. Simply head over to our beta testing section, read our guide and download the installer to get access to the 2017.1 beta.

The beta release is available for free to all Unity users, including Personal Edition users. In the release notes section, you’ll find a complete list of all the new features, improvements and bug fixes included in the release.

If you experience problems in the beta

If you experience issues with the beta, we encourage you to file a bug report using the Unity Bug Reporter accessible through the Help menu in the editor, and to post in the Beta Forums.

Whats included in 2017.1b cycle?

Over the course of the release of the 2017.1b version, the following features will become available:

Tools for storytelling

2017.1 beta introduces Timeline and Cinemachine.

Timeline is a powerful new visual tool that allows you to create cinematic content (like the Adam short film). You can use it to cut scenes, create gameplay sequences and much more, by orchestrating your game objects, animations, sounds and scenes.

Cinemachine brings an advanced camera system that enables you to compose your shots like a movie director, including using real world camera settings and simple directions like “follow the head of the character.”

Timeline’s track-based sequencing tool and Cinemachine’s smart cameras system bring storytelling to artists who can now create stories focusing on the art direction, not the implementation details.

2D improvements

Following up on the major 2D feature improvements in 5.6, we are introducing 2D Sprite masking, which enables you to use masks with Sprites to create new kinds of effects.

Management of Sprites and Atlases have also been made easier by introducing the Sprite Atlas asset, which gives the developer more control on how to pack sprites and access them at runtime.

Another example of a workflow improvement is the addition of the Physics Shape Editor to the Sprite Editor, which allows you to create and edit a custom physics shape for a Sprite, which will then be used when generating collider shapes with a PolygonCollider2D Component.

Scene and Asset Bundle Loading Improvements

We made several improvements to loading in-game scenes and Asset Bundles. The changes to the underlying architecture make the loading of scenes and Asset Bundles faster resulting in a smoother player experience.

Model Importer improvements

FBX import in Unity now supports Segment Scale compensation for models exported from Maya. We also added the option of computing weighted normals when importing FBX files and fixed normal generation for hard edges. Lights and cameras are now imported from FBX files, and visibility properties (including animation) can also be imported.

Particle system improvements

Even more features and improvements will be made available for the particle system, including culling mode with tooltip messages, edit modes for particle system collision mode planes, as well as several other improvements to collisions and physics.

Animation Improvements

Animation windows have been updated to improve the keyframing workflow of working with animations and interacting with animator state-machines. Performance Recording will be provided as an experimental release.

Collaborate

Collaborate is a simple way for teams to save, share, and sync their Unity project, regardless of location or role. In 2017.1 we will continue to improve the workflow with new features like browser integration and the ability to publish selectively.

And there is, of course, a lot more on the way. So stay tuned–we’ll be announcing more features as we get closer to launch here on the blog.

45 Comentarios

I am stuck on version 5.5 because 5.6 breaks rigid body interpolation – so weird to break something so fundamental to 3D games programming. The fix is apparently 2017.1 but I have tried beta and it distorts and twists some of my animated models so looks like 5.5.3p3 is the last good build. This unfortunately means that I can not build Android as Vulkan and also that the new IAP won’t work because they require API24 for targetSDK and 5.5.3p3 does not support API 24 – wow after 3 years of work I am so frustrated by this!

“In order to call GetTransformInfoExpectUpToDate, RendererUpdateManager.UpdateAll must be called first.”

When will we getting a full-featured implementation of Metal for OSX? Restricting 5.6 to pragma target 3.5 is a bit of a facepalm moment, what’s the point of using a more advanced low-level API if it’s hobbled and is unable to match the features in the dated OpenGL API? The Unity demos at WWWDC 2016 were promising and impressive, I’d like to see that followed through please.

Hi, I think your blog might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your website in Safari, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, terrific blog!

I dream with open world tools, huge scene with dynamic loading and disabling objects, allowing large scenes with custom distance to instantiate /destroy objects… Even on mobile.
That is a must, but Unity doesn’t support it… It is very hard and annoying making large open world with Unity, please make a team to work on this… It would be awesome being on core, without bad things like floating origin and destroying objects manually on mobile… :(

Could you give more info about the “”Scene and Asset Bundle Loading Improvements”? Little stutters when loading a new part of the scene asynchronously is a big pain in out project and I want to see if there is any improvement in this area.

So, i am trying to make android builds to work, and it is pain in the ass… First, newest android sdk is undetectable, had to download older sdk, no problem. Then, empty project just crashes on android phone… But development build runs fine… After reinstall of non dev build, it now runs for like 0.2 seconds and then just quits itself without any error message…
So, my empty test project: created 2d project in unity, created a filled square in paint, added it to scene in unity, added a c# script to it, added a single line to update function to rotate it and to see if everything works:

transform.Rotate(Vector3.forward * Time.deltaTime * 45.0f);

Now, as i said, this project either crashes or just quits itself without any error message, and development build runs fine. Samsung s5 g900f. Is this a unity bug or some misconfiguration by unity ? And what is weird is that non-dev build runs for about 0.2 seconds before quiting itself, i can see the square spinning a bit…

This is seriously great stuff…but more than anything I’m looking for prototyping tools. Grayboxing, BSP, that sort of thing. Level design is more of a pain than I would like at the moment. That’s my feedback!

Still waiting for asynchronous GPU to CPU readback functions (btw your community already provided a custom solution for 5.6 that cries out for being included officially :) )? Double precision for world space positioning to allow creating of huge scales?
Core enhancements like that would excite me more… :-/

Great to see improvements on Importer/FBX. However, why are we still not able to export “Constraints” from Maya into Unity? The FBX file format clearly saves them but Unity omits all that at import for no good reason. Having constraint support would be a huge benefit to animator/riggers and technical artists all around. To be honest I am not sure why I would want to export Lights and Cameras out of Maya. Seems rather unnecessary.

I think the only way tro import maya/3dmax/blender constraints is translating them into joints inside Unity, so is basically hard/impossible to be done automagically. But someone always can try to write a asset and sell it on asset store.

Hi, just by curiosity, at the last GDC you talked about a Visual Scripting feature, do you have an idea when it will be release? You said that you will concentrate on tools and features for artist and designers so I was just wondering, do I have to pay for one in the asset store or will I pay for something and then a short period of time later you will release something?

But keep up the good work, and I know that developpers have more urgent features or bug fixe so.

Hello Guillaume,
I am developing ‘Diamond’, an intuitive and friendly user visual scripter with embedded documentation. It generates C# code for you.
Within a month, it will be available on the Unity Asset Store.
Me too, I need testers, so if you want Diamond, let me know it at this email: mezanixissa@gmail.com
I can give you a promotional code to get Diamond for free.
I saw that you have a french name, I am in France at Clermont Ferrand and I participate in some game development meetups at Lyon.
Now for Diamond, it cares also about artists it had already nodes to deal with textures, their channels and contains most of the photoshop blending modes.
Diamond will be my first product, I will update it monthly with weekly tutorials. In coming updates, I planned to do more things for artists, like a Bezier curve editor to edit and color shapes and put them in textures, I planned also for mesh editing or parametrical geometries.

Does not exite me. What about nested Prefabs? And what about bringing Light and Shadows and LightBaking up to snuff? There is a lot to do at Unities core, and I don`t mean breaking backwards compatibility all the time by changing API..
Shadows still look terrible and light and shadow performance is a real problem when developing for VR.

The Baker is lame and unpredictable compared to Beast in Unity 4.
Timeline is nice but there are assets available if needed.